Elias Ashmole, "the
greatest virtuoso and curioso that ever was known or read of in England
before his time," was born at Lichfield on 23rd May 1617. His father,
though following the trade of a saddler, was a man of good family, who had
seen much service in Ireland. His mother, whose maiden name was Bowyer, was
closely related to James Pagitt, a Baron of the Exchequer. A childhood
friendship with Pagitt's son procured Elias' reception into the judge's
family, after having received a fair education at Lichfield Grammar School,
and as a chorister in the Cathedral.

Through the patronage of Baron
Pagitt, he became a solicitor in 1638, "and had indifferent good
practice." In the same year, he married Eleanor Mainwaring, of
Smallwood in Cheshire, who died suddenly in 1641. In 1642, having embraced
the Royalist side in the Civil War, he left London and retired into Cheshire
and, in 1644, was appointed by the King as Commissioner of Excise at
Lichfield. Business connected with this employment brought him to Oxford,
where he was long detained soliciting the Royalist Parliament assembled in
that city. There, he made the acquaintance of Captain (afterwards Sir)
George Wharton, who procured him a commission in the ordnance, and imbued
him with the love of astrology and alchemy which, next to his
antiquarianism, became the leading feature of his intellectual character. He
entered himself at Brasenose College and studied physics and mathematics;
but, about the end of the year, became Commissioner of Excise at Worcester,
to which he soon added the employments of Captain of Horse and Controller of
the Ordnance. In July 1646, Worcester, however, surrendered to the
Parliament, and Ashmole again retired into Cheshire.

In the October, Elias came to
London and mixed much in astrological circles, becoming acquainted with
Lilly and Booker, and finding himself a guest at 'the mathematical feast at
the White Hart.' He was also one of the earliest English Freemasons, having
been initiated in or about 1646, in which year the first formal meeting of
the body in England was held. His marriage must have been prudent or his
employments profitable for, about this time, "it pleased God to put me
in mind that I was now placed in the condition I had always desired, which
was that I might be enabled to live to myself and studies without being
forced to take pains for a livelihood in the World."

This did not, however, prevent
his seeking to improve his fortunes still further by marriage with a lady
twenty years older than himself when he retired to Englefield
in Berkshire. Mary, sister of Sir Humphrey Forster from nearby Aldermaston
Court, was the widow of three husbands, the mother of grown-up sons
and, as Lady Mainwaring, was a very distant relative, through her last
husband, of Ashmole's first wife. On 1st March 1647, "I moved the Lady
Mainwaring in the way of marriage, and received a fair answer, though no
condescension." In July, the lady's second son by her first marriage,
Humphrey Stafford, disapproving of the match, "broke into my chamber,
and had like to have killed me." He was not deterred, however, from
prosecuting his suit, the progress of which is amusingly recorded in his
diary. At length, on 16th November 1649, his perseverance was triumphant,
and he "enjoyed his wife's estate, though not her company for
altogether"; and notwithstanding family jars, subpoenas, sequestrations
and frequent sicknesses, all faithfully noted, he vigorously pushed forward
his studies in astrology, chemistry and botany.

In 1650, Ashmole edited an
alchemical work by Dr. Dee, together with an anonymous tract on the same
subject, under the anagram of James Hasolle. In 1652, he published the first
volume of his 'Theatruin Chemicum,' a collection of ancient metrical
treatises on alchemy. He procured his friend Wharton's deliverance from
prison and made him steward of the estates, centred on Bradfield
in Berkshire, which he had acquired by his second marriage. He also formed
the acquaintance of William Backhouse
of Swallowfield Park,
a venerable Rosicrucian, who called him son, and "opened himself very
freely touching the great secret;" as well as that of John Tradescant,
keeper of the botanic garden at Chelsea, an intimacy which has indirectly
contributed more than anything else to his celebrity with posterity. He
studied Hebrew, engraving and heraldry, and manifested, in every way, an
insatiable curiosity for knowledge, justifying Selden's opinion of him as
one "affected to the furtherance of all good learning." On 13th
May 1653, Backhouse "told me, in syllables, the true matter of the
philosopher's stone, which he bequeathed to me as a legacy." But
Ashmole has omitted to bequeath it to us. His domestic troubles came to a
head in October 1657, when his wife's petition for a separation and alimony,
though fortified by eight hundred sheets of depositions, was dismissed by
the court and she returned to live with him.

The Restoration marks a great
turning point in his life. His loyalty had entitled him to Charles II's
favour and, being introduced to the King by no less influential a person
than Chiffinch, he was appointed Windsor
Herald "and had Henry VIII's closet assigned for my use." From
this time, antiquarian pursuits predominated with him and we hear
comparatively little of astrology, in which, however, he never lost his
belief or interest, and nothing of alchemy. His favour at court continued to
grow and places were showered upon him. He successively became commissioner,
controller, and accountant-general of excise, and held, at the same time,
the employments of commissioner for Surinam and controller of the White
office. He was, about this time, engaged in litigation with the widow of his
old friend, Tradescant, who had bequeathed his museum to him. A friendly
arrangement was, at length, concluded and Ashmole became possessed of the
curiosities which formed the nucleus of the institution by which he is best
remembered. In 1668, his wife died and, in the course of the same year, he
married a much younger lady, the daughter of his friend, the herald, Dugdale.
All this time, he was diligently engaged upon his great work, the
'Institution, Laws and Ceremonies of the Order of the Garter,' which was
published in 1672 and brought him many tokens of honour, both from his own
and foreign countries. It is certainly a noble example of antiquarian zeal
and research. He, soon afterwards, retired from his post as Windsor Herald,
receiving a pension of £400, secured upon the paper duty; and he
subsequently declined the appointment of Garter King-at-Arms in favour of
his father-in-law, Sir William Dugdale.

In 1677, Ashmole determined to
bestow the museum he had inherited from Tradescant, with his own additions
to it, upon the University of Oxford, on condition of a suitable building
being provided for its reception. The gift was accepted on these terms, and
the collection was removed to Oxford upon the completion of the building in
1682, Dr. Plot being appointed curator. According to Anthony Wood, the
curiosities filled twelve wagons. Ashmole quaintly notes in his diary, for
17th February 1683, "The last load of my rarities was sent to the
barge, and this afternoon I relapsed into the gout." In 1685, he was
invited to represent his native city in Parliament, but desisted from his
candidature to gratify King James II. In 1690, he was magnificently
entertained by the University of Oxford, which had conferred upon him the
degree of MD. He ultimately also bequeathed his library to this institution.
It was invaluable as regards manuscripts but equally so in printed books
until damaged by a fire at the Temple in 1679, which had also destroyed his
collection of medals. He closed his industrious and prosperous life on 18th
May 1692, and is interred in South Lambeth Church under a black marble slab
with a Latin inscription, promising that his name shall endure as long as
his museum.

The Ashmolean Museum, though
really formed by Tradescant, has indeed secured its donor a celebrity which
he could not have obtained by his writings. Ashmole was nevertheless no
ordinary man. His industry was most exemplary, he was disinterestedly
attached to the pursuit of knowledge, and his antiquarian researches, at all
events, were guided by great good sense. His addiction to astrology was no
mark of weakness of judgment in that age. He can hardly have been more
attached to it than Dryden or Shaftesbury, but he had more leisure and
perseverance for its pursuit. Alchemy, he seems to have quietly dropped. He
appears in his diary as a man by no means unfeeling or ungenerous, constant
and affectionate in his friendships, and placable towards his adversaries.
He had evidently, however, a very keen eye to his own interest, and
acquisitiveness was his master passion. His munificence, nevertheless,
speaks for itself, and was frequently exercised on unlooked-for occasions,
as when he erected monuments to his astrological friends, Lilly and Booker.
He was also a benefactor to his native city.

Ashmole's principal work is his
'Institution, Laws, and Ceremonies of the Order of the Garter' (1672), one
of those books which exhaust the subject of which they treat and leave scope
only for supplements. The edition of 1693 is a mere reprint; but in 1715 a
new edition was published under the title of 'The History of the Order of
the Garter,' with a continuation by T. Walker. 'The Antiquities of
Berkshire, with a particular account of the Castle, College and Town of
Windsor,' was published in 1719, and again in 1736. It consists merely of
Ashmole's notes during his official visitation as herald, and the
genealogical papers transcribed by him; but these form together a very
copious collection. It is prefaced by a memoir of the author. His own
memoirs, drawn up by himself by way of his diary, were published in 1717,
and reprinted along with the autobiography of his friend Lilly in 1774. They
are a quaint and curious record, narrating matters of great personal
importance to him in the same dry style as the most trivial particulars of
big numerous ailments: how he cured himself of an ague by hanging three
spiders about his neck and how, on the ever-memorable 14th February 1677,
"I took cold in my right ear." His alchemical works are merely
editions or reprints and the only one of importance is the 'Theatrum
Chemicum' (1652), which contains twenty-nine old English poems on the
subject, some very curious. The extent of his collections in genealogy,
heraldry, local and family history, astrology and alchemy, may be estimated
from the admirable catalogue of Mr. W. H. Black and the index by Messrs.
Macray and Gough (1845-66).

Edited
from Leslie Stephen's 'Dictionary of National Biography' (1885).